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The Watchful Four
The Watchful Four 'is a riddle encountered by the party in the precursor temple north of Eboncaer. It shed light on the steps necessary to reveal the secret artefact hidden within the temple. Translations Common :''Four watchers in line, each bearing the flame. :The first to light his torch dared not watch the end. :The second, by the first, played a woeful lament. :The third kept close to his faithful beast. :The fourth marched not beside the first, :Yet like the second, sought guidance in song. :And thus they stood over their queen, :Who slept eternal in silver light. Context The riddle was found inscribed between the centre two of four almost identical statues at the very back of the precursor temple. The statues were of hooded, faceless, humanoid figures, each holding an unlit brazier, in line with the focus on lighting flames highlighted in the riddle. Lighting all the braziers in an arbitrary order had no effect and simply snuffed out the flames when all four were lit. The Puzzle The party was able to note that each of the statues had some key differences between them which would shed more light on the correct order in which to light the fires. From left to right: # A statue of a hooded figure holding a flute with a crow perched on its arm. # A statue of a hooded figure holding a flute. # A statue of a hooded figure with an empty, upturned palm. # A statue of a hooded figure with an empty, upturned palm and a crow perched on its arm. Matching the individual characteristics of the statues to the riddle allowed the party to discover the correct order in which to lit the braziers and thereby reveal the chest holding Cirit'cel, an ancient precursor weapon of great power. The Solution Solving the puzzle is a relatively simple matter. By following the lines of the riddle in turn one can decipher each statue's corresponding position in the riddle. :"The first to light his torch dared not watch the end." This implies that neither the leftmost statue nor the rightmost statue can be the first brazier to be lit, as they are on "the end" of the line. So the first brazier must be either Statue 2 or Statue 3 from the list above. :"The second, by the first, played a woeful lament." This suggests that the next brazier in the order must belong to a statue that also has an instrument which allows it to play its lament. This brings the two possible solutions to '''3,2, or 2,1. :"The third kept close to his faithful beast." This imposes the restriction on the third brazier in the order where the corresponding statue must also have an animal companion, in this case the crow. There are no restrictions on the neighbours of the third brazier, which brings the solutions to 3,2,1, 3,2,4, 2,1,4. :"The fourth marched not beside the first, :Yet like the second, sought guidance in song." The final segment of the riddle narrows down the list of solutions to one. The fourth and last brazier to be lit must not be a neighbour of the first, but must hold an instrument. Following the list of solutions from the previous step, 3,2,1,4 and 2,1,4,3 become invalid (because Statue 4 and Statue 3 are neighbours), making the only viable solution: 3,2,4,1. Lighting the braziers in this order caused an intricate chest to rise from the middle of an altar in the temple. Inside this chest lay the precursor bow, Cirit'cel, which was claimed by Namfoodle. Category:Literature